To See A Flower
CB I Hate Perfume (2005)

Stemmy and green with a sprinkle of wet soil, To Se a Flower is highly naturalistic, but like others in the line, it relies on the petrichor effect of what I assume to be geosmin. This smells like a flower shop; the scent of wet stems placed onto paper prior to being trimmed, wrapped, or arranged. The individual flowers themselves aren't the focus, though; it's all about the crisp, green stems. Sadly, the lifespan is akin to the time it takes a leaf to fall to the ground–at least in the water perfume version. For something this diaphanous, the absolute is absolutely essential.

I expected to get the flower shop with all the green and mixture of flowers but what I got was garden shop with potted plants and earth (not bad at that) that changed to something that reminded me of some old fashion beauty soap. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.

This was included, at my wife's request, in my second order of samples from CB. I'm starting to get it. My first order included Gingerbread, which doesn't just smell of gingerbread but rather its components, butter, cream, sugar, ginger, etc. and then by the base the composition smells of its name.Likewise with To See a Flower. One experiences walking into a greenhouse or flower case at a florist. One smells the soil, stems, leaves and earthy aspects of a flower before the base develops into a sweeter, more traditional floral accord with hints of the green aspects of flowers. It's really quite brilliant. I sampled the absolute/extrait, so I'm not sure how the water-based EdP would differ, if at all.While I appreciate the artistry, this isn't something I'd wear. My wife loves it, however, and a bottle will probably forthcoming as a gift to her.

top note; wet soil, flower saps and leavesmiddle note; marron and a bit pine compost, greens like purslane and clovers, daisies and some flower notes that are very faint and cannot be named, may be the smell of flowers which are in a bouquet for their appearance but not smell, so no one knows their unpretentious smells when not exaggerated like that...base note; a sweet cheery mixture of the all previous; may be a flower shop which the shopkeeper lady has eaten some croissants and drank sweet tea a few minutes ago...It is really very extraordinary but i liked it.

The greenness of freshly cut grass, wet earth, a hint of powdery, bitter moss and the barest trace of delicate, crisp spring flowers. Too light and clean to be my type of scent but still lovely. I think I like it so much because it's so very green and natural, instead of the usual cool, light, feminine "spring" florals with lily of the valley, violet, lilac and such that are more summery to my nose. In the drydown it gets a little sweeter and more powdery and looses its crisp freshness, more like a light floral chypre perhaps.